Govt Expects US$55.9 Bil Revenue From Oil Palm Industry In 2020

DUNGUN (Terengganu, Malaysia), July 11 (Bernama) -- The Government expects to earn RM178 billion (US$55.907 billion) revenue from the booming oil palm industry in 2020, says Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Hamzah Zainuddin. The ambitious target has been set under the Economic Transformation Programme for the sector, he said. To realise the target, replanting of old and unproductive oil palm trees, aged 25 years and more, would be expedited, efforts would be made to increase fresh fruit bunches' yield to 26 metric tonnes a hectare, he said. Oil palm harvesters' productivity and palm oil extraction rate would also be increased to 23 per cent, he told reporters after handing cheques totalling RM447,648 to 112 Kerteh Felda settlers for the oil palm replanting incentive scheme. Hamzah said the Malaysian Palm Oil Board had and would take measures to develop facilities to speed up growth of the food-based downstream industries. He said the government has approved a whopping RM1 billion for oil palm replanting scheme nationwide. On the oil palm replanting incentive scheme, Hamzah said following appeals by the Kerteh Felda settlers, who undertook replanting between 2003 and 2005, the government agreed to approve an additional RM40 million allocation to pay the settlers who were not eligible for the incentives. Initially, the incentives are only for settlers, who replanted their crop between 2006 and 2008. "Following their appeal, Prime Minister Najib Razak approved the additional allocation. A total of 14,892 settlers from 79 Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) schemes will benefit from the allocation," he added. -- BERNAMA